Posted 20 Aug 2021 Hello everyone! I am quite new to communications between different brands of PLC's. As I have mentioned in the title, machine has a siemens s7-300 series pn/dp PLC with no CP modules (programmed in Simatic Manager). And they are adding an another machine with an OMRON NX102-9000 model PLC (Sysmac Studio). Siemens side also has PC connection over winCC flexible. Somehow i need to communicate between these two devices. Now, I have been looking into this for a while. There are mentions of sockets, but i have no prior experience with them. From what i ve researched omron has "Send" and "Rcv" blocks, but i cant find my way through on how to use them. For example, i dont know "where" to write in the siemens plc. I feel lost to be honest. Can anyone point me to the right direction? Sample program snippets, documents ? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Aug 2021 Well... Sockets implies TCP/IP, but your S7-300 does not have a CP (ethernet) card so that is out. There maybe vendors that have profibus gateways that speak "Omron", but I am not familiar with Omron, so can't say for sure. One option would be to install a CP module on the S7-300 and then use a Redlion data station to pass data between the two. Redlion speaks just about every protocol. 1 person likes this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 23 Aug 2021 If both handle Profibus, you may be able to add a driver to your S7-300. You would need a GSD file for the omron plc. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 24 Aug 2021 Nope, NX102 does not have a Profibus option. So that's out. Ethernet is your best bet. But your S7-300 doesn't have that, so you will need to look into some kind of third party gateways or an HMI that can talk to both devices and pass data between them. 1 person likes this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 25 Aug 2021 Sounds like an opportunity for a Red Lion DSP. 2 people like this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 25 Aug 2021 32 minutes ago, pcmccartney1 said: Sounds like an opportunity for a Red Lion DSP. I've used Red Lion HMIs (including the old 4" Kadet) and a DSP to pass information back and forth between Siemens and AB PLCs with no issue whatsoever. Of course, in our case, all of the Siemens PLCs had Ethernet connections. The AB PLCs were Ethernet and RS-232. The DSP has an option card for Profibus to get to the S7 and natively supports Omron several ways. Their Crimson 3.0 software is a free download that's easy to poke around and see what drivers they support. If you're not sure, I've found that their online tech support is very good. They'll be able to tell you right away if it can do what you need it to do. 2 people like this Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 27 Aug 2021 Thank you all for the replies, after some research, i have been recommended to use NX-102's own OPC server to connect these devices. Are there any restrictions regarding to this method? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted 31 Aug 2021 It means you will have a PC in the middle, may not be the most reliable solution. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites